What is Inner Child Work?
Inner child work seeks to heal the childhood wounds that affect the way we navigate this world as an adult. Inner child work is a healing journey and healing is not linear. It is important to remember that emotions and memories, bob and weave in and out of your conscious mind. This type of work calls on you to nurture, protect, and acknowledge all aspects of your childlike self. Inner child work is essentially reparenting yourself.
Inner child work is worth your time and energy. View it as a loving embrace that simultaneously purges the spirit of negative habits and thought patterns. This type of work requires you to give yourself grace and empathize. All of these factors make this healing journey a self-love journey as well. You are loving on, giving to, honoring, and getting to know your younger self. All of that is love.
This journey is highly personalized and visceral. There are many different ways to address these childhood wounds. I am starting my Inner Child work as well, so expect this to be a lengthy series. I am happy that I will be able to share my methods, resources, and learned experiences on this blog! Let’s start off simple.
Starting Slow
Ok so boom, journaling. Anyone familiar with spirituality or to be even broader, self-development, knows that journaling is key. I will admit it is hard to get into self-discipline problems as I do, but it is the easiest way to get all of your emotions out. Even if you just write down the thoughts as they float through your mind and it looks like word vomit on the page, that is a place to start. Journaling allows you to see your thoughts and keep track of your development. I love looking at my old journals. Seeing your progress is incredible and makes you even more grateful for the current moment. Journals make you honor your progress, especially when you write truthfully and consistently.
Tip: Have dedicated time to journaling. This helps make it a habit and makes you less likely to forget about it. For example, I used to journal right after coming back from the gym in the mornings while my body was still a bit too tired to stand in the shower.
So get a cute journal, get your favorite writing utensils, and take up a comfortable space. Do not attempt to do big bulks of the work at a time, pace yourself.
Here are 10 journal prompts to start off your inner child healing work:
- Who did you need when you were a child?
- What were you forced to live without?
- What was your biggest fear?
- Who or where was your safe space?
- What is the clearest childhood memory you have?
- Do you have a favorite childhood memory? What is it?
- What was your favorite food?
- What was the first pivotal lesson that you learned?
- What about who you are now would your younger self find cool?
- What attributes do you now possess that younger you sought out in others?
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